PUBLISHED BY THE PRESS SYNDICATE OF THE UNIVERSITY OF CAMBRIDGE ‘The Pitt Building, Trumpington Screct, Cambridge, United Kingdom CAMBRIDGE UNIVERSITY PRESS The Edinburgh Building, Cambridge, ce2 anu, UK 40 West roth Street, New York, sy soont-42tt, USA 477 Williamstown Road, Port Melboume, vic 3207, Australia Ruiz de Alarcon 13, 28014 Madrid, Spain Dock House, The Waterfront, Cape Town 8001, South Africa heep://wwwcambridge.org © Cambridge University Press 2005 “This book isin copyright. Subject to statutory exception and to the provisions of relevant collective licensing agreements, no reproduction of any part may take place without the written permission of Cambridge University Press. First published 2005 Printed in the United Kingdom at the University Pres, Cambridge Typeface Adobe Garamond wtrs pt. System BTEX2¢ {rs} A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library Library of Congress Cataloguing in Publication data Whelpton, Johan, A History of Nepal / john Whelpton. p. cm, Includes bibliographical references and index. ISBN 0 $21 80026 9 (hb.) — tsBN © 521 80470 1 (pbk.) 1. Nepal ~ History. Ds494.5.W43 2005 954.96 —dea2 2004051856 ISBN 0 521 80026 9 hardback ISHN © 521 80470 1 paperback ‘The publisher has used its best endeavours ro ensure that the URLs for external websites referred to in this book are correct and active a the time of going to press. However, the publisher has no responsibility for the websites and can make no guarantee that a site will remain live or that the ‘content is or will remain appropriate.Contents List of illustrations page vii List of maps viii List of tables ix Key events x Acknowledgements i Notes on romanisation and terminology List of abbreviations Introduction : 1 Environments, state and society in the central Himalayas to 1743 6 The physical arena 6 Peoples and migrations 8 Hunters, herders and farmers 15 State formation in the ancient and medieval periods ny The control of resources: land, trade and manpower 26 Social structure 28 2 Unification and sanskritisation, 1743-1885 35 ‘The Gorkhali conquests: expansion and aftermath 35 The establishment of the Rana regime 46 State and society 9 Questions of identity 55 3 Nepal under the Shamsher Ranas, 1885-1951 61 From Bir to Bhim: the high tide of Rana rule 61 From Juddha to Mohan: the last years of the old regime 65 Economy, people and government a New gods and old 79aa You have either reached a page that is unavailable for viewing or reached your viewing limit for this book.Illustrations Ghandrung village (John Whelpton) Garuda at Changu Narayan (© Johannes Bormann, Schoenaich, Germany) Prithvi Narayan Shah (Chandra Shekhar Karki) Gorkha (Department of Tourism HMG, Nepal. Photo: Mukunda B. Shrestha) Betrawati (John Whelpton) Bhimsen Thapa (Ganesh Photo Lab) Jang Bahadur Rana (P. Shrestha Collection/Nepal Kingdom Foundation) Chandra Shamsher Rana (P. Shrestha Collection/Nepal Kingdom Foundation) Mohan Shamsher Rana (P. Shrestha Collection/Nepal Kingdom Foundation) B. P. Koirala (Himal Khabar Patrika) The Congress troika (Jhilko) Immigrants to the Tarai John Whelpton) Birganj (John Whelpton) Kathmandu Valley (Rita Chui) Girija Prasad Koirala (Himal Khabar Patrika) Rukumkot (Kiyoko Ogura) King Birendra and family (Royal Palace Press Secretariat/Himal Khabar Patrika) King Gyanendra (Royal Palace Press Secretariat/Himal Khabar Patrika) A political interpretation of the 2001 palace massacre (Naulo Bihani) Maoist fighters (Kiyoko Ogura) vii page 17 20 36 38 40 4I 48 63 70 73 us 124 31 157 192 210 22 23, 217 220aa You have either reached a page that is unavailable for viewing or reached your viewing limit for this book.aa You have either reached a page that is unavailable for viewing or reached your viewing limit for this book.aa You have either reached a page that is unavailable for viewing or reached your viewing limit for this book.1743 1768-9 1786 1791 1792 1793 1802-3 1806 April 1809-10 1814-16 1837 July 1840 1842 1846 September 1850 1855-56 1856 1857-8 1877 1885 November 1904 1914-18 1919 1923 1924 November 1934 January March Key events xi Prithvi Narayan Shah crowned king of Gorkha Gorkhali conquest of Kathmandu Valley First Nepal—Tibet War Second Nepal—Tibet War Chinese invasion of Nepal Kirkpatrick mission to Kathmandu East India Company's envoy Captain Knox in Kathmandu Assassination of Rana Bahadur Shah and beginning, of Bhimsen Thapa’s predominance Sikh ruler Ranjit Singh halts Gorkhali expansion in the west Anglo-Gorkha War Dismissal of Bhimsen Thapa Appointment of ‘British ministry’ ‘National Movement’ of courtiers and army press King Rajendra to grant powers to his junior queen Jang Bahadur Rana becomes prime minister after Kot Massacre Jang Bahadur Rana’s visit to Europe Third Nepal-Tiber War Jang Bahadur Rana becomes maharaja of Kaski and Lamjung Nepal assists British in suppression of Indian Mutiny Death of Jang Bahadur Rana Shamsher Ranas seize power Chandra Shamsher Rana assists the Younghusband expedition to Tibet Around 100,000 Nepalese involved in support of Britain in First World War Opening of Trichandra College in Kathmandu Britain recognises Nepal’s complete independence Chandra Shamsher Rana’s speech calling for abolition of slavery Major earthquake destroys many buildings in Kathmandu Valley Removal of C-Class Ranas from the Roll of Successionaa You have either reached a page that is unavailable for viewing or reached your viewing limit for this book.aa You have either reached a page that is unavailable for viewing or reached your viewing limit for this book.aa You have either reached a page that is unavailable for viewing or reached your viewing limit for this book.1994 May July November 1995 March September September September November 1996 February May September December 1997 March March October October 1998 January March April April May August Key events w United People’s Front splits into Baburam Bhattarai and Nirajan Vaidya factions Girija Koirala requests dissolution of parliament Man Mohan Adhikari appointed prime minister following elections giving CPN (UML) a plurality Prachanda’s faction of Unity Centre renames itself CPN (Maoist) Central committee of CPN (Maoist) adopes ‘Plan for the historic initiation of the People’s War’ UML government leaves office after parliament passes a no-confidence motion Sher Bahadur Deuba becomes prime minister heading Congress-National Democratic Party-Sadbhavana coalition Police launch Operation Romeo against Maoist supporters in Rolpa Commencement of ‘People’s War’ Girija Koirala is elected president of Nepali Congress Joint meeting of both Houses of parliament approves the Mahakali treaty by a two-thirds’ majority New crade and transit treaty with India Deuba fails to gain vote of confidence Swearing-in of NDP-UML-Sadbhavana coalition under Lokendra Bahadur Chand Chand government loses no-confidence vore Surya Bahadur Thapa becomes prime minister heading NDP-Congress-Sadbhavana coalition Formal split of NDP into separate Chand and hapa parties Dissidents formally split from UML to form the CPN (Marxist-Leninist) ‘Thapa resigns in accordance with original agreement with Congress Girija Koirala sworn in as prime minister of a Congress minority government Beginning of Kilo Sierra 2 police operation against the Maoist insurgents CPN (ML) ministers join Koirala governmentaa You have either reached a page that is unavailable for viewing or reached your viewing limit for this book.aa You have either reached a page that is unavailable for viewing or reached your viewing limit for this book.aa You have either reached a page that is unavailable for viewing or reached your viewing limit for this book.aa You have either reached a page that is unavailable for viewing or reached your viewing limit for this book.aa You have either reached a page that is unavailable for viewing or reached your viewing limit for this book.Notes on romanisation and terminology When using Nepali words in the text, I have generally followed the prin- ciples explained in my Nepal volume in the World Bibliographical Series (Whelpton 1990: xxiii-iv), The standard Indological system of transcrip- tion has been taken as a base, but diacritics have been omitted and some modifications made to come closer into line with anglicisations well estab- lished in non-technical writing, and also to reflect the actual pronunciation of Nepali as perceived by speakers of English. The main points to note are: * ‘Ch’ has been used for both of the consonants respectively transcribed as ‘c’ and ‘ch’ in the Indological system or as ‘ch’ and ‘chh’ in another common style of romanisation; the difference is roughly that between the sounds of ‘ch’ in the English words ‘exchange’ and ‘change’. * ‘S’ is used for the dental sibilant and ‘sh’ for both the palatal and retroflex sibilants; the three sounds were clearly distinguished in Sanskrit but are all now pronounced by most Nepalese as a single sound somewhere between the ‘s’ in English ‘sip’ and the ‘sh’ in ‘ship’. * Indological ‘v’ is represented by ‘b’ or ‘w’, according to current pronun- ciation, and the voiced retroflex consonant similarly transcribed as ‘1’ rather than ‘d’ when this is nearer to the actual sound (e.g. ‘Pahari’ rather than ‘Pahadi’). I have, however, retained the original ‘v’ in a few words taken directly from Sanskrit, notably Vajracharya and vamshavali. * Both the first and second vowels of the Devanagari script are transcribed as ‘a’, even though the first sound is normally pronounced either like the English ‘o’ in ‘son’ or the vowel in ‘sock’ whilst the second is nearer to ‘a’ in ‘father’, Many Nepalese when romanising their own names still follow the nineteenth-century English convention of employing ‘u’ for the first sound, so the spellings ‘Jang’ and ‘Shamsher’ used here are often replaced by ‘Jung’ and ‘Shumshere’. I have tried to follow individuals’ own preference when they are mentioned as the writer of a book or as an informant rather than as historical characters. xxiaa You have either reached a page that is unavailable for viewing or reached your viewing limit for this book.aa You have either reached a page that is unavailable for viewing or reached your viewing limit for this book.aa You have either reached a page that is unavailable for viewing or reached your viewing limit for this book.2 A History of Nepal compounded by the growth of ‘Maoist’ insurgency from 1996 onwards, and deep-seated economic and social problems remain to be solved. In order to understand a country’s present, what matters is often not just the past as such, but rather the way in which that past is now understood and interpreted. Nepalese naturally differ among themselves in their inter- pretations, these differences often reflecting current political controversies. As in many parts of the world, however, the dominant view, enshrined in school textbooks, sees the creation of the modern state as the political uni- fication of a people and a territory which in some sense already belonged together. A key theme of subsequent history is then the determination of the nation as a whole to preserve its unity and independence, with individ- ual political leaders being viewed as heroes or villains to the extent that they embodied or frustrated this national will. The choice of the word ‘unifica- tion’ rather than ‘conquest’ to describe the expansion of Gorkhali power is one example of this approach, as is the eagerness of some scholars to claim the Bucwal Ramopithecus, a primate that ranged what is now the Nepalese ‘Tarai 11 million years ago, as a direct ancestor of early man in Nepal. Another manifestation of this nationalist approach is a wish to date as far back as possible the beginnings of the political connection between the Kathmandu Valley, to which the name ‘Nepal’ originally referred,! and the much wider territory covered by the modern state. It is thus frequently claimed that the Licchavi dynasty which ruled in the Valley in the early centuries ap also controlled the hills up to or even beyond Nepal’s current borders. This is in fact highly unlikely, but it is true that the Kathmandu Valley, with its urban civilisation and situation on a major trading route made it the only political unit of major importance in the hills between Assam and Kashmir. It is Kathmandu that looms largest in references to the area in ancient Indian and Chinese sources, and events there also tend to dominate modern histories of the country. Any history of Nepal has to be ‘Kathmandu-centric’ to some degree, but it is important to focus also on what was happening elsewhere, including the ‘Tarai plains in the south where half the total population now live. Underlying the history ofboth hills and plains is the complex relationship between human beings and their physical environment. The middle hills offered early settlers a refuge from the enervating heat and the greater risk of infection on the plains, factors which later led the British in India to flock co their “hill stations’. More recently, population pressure in the hills and improved technology have made the ‘Tarai plains more attractive. The linked problems of overpopulation and environmental degradation shouldaa You have either reached a page that is unavailable for viewing or reached your viewing limit for this book.aa You have either reached a page that is unavailable for viewing or reached your viewing limit for this book.aa You have either reached a page that is unavailable for viewing or reached your viewing limit for this book.CHAPTER I Environment, state and society in the central Himalayas to 1743 THE PHYSICAL ARENA The history of the Himalayas began with the slow collision of what is now the Indian subcontinent with Central Asia. About 70 million years ago, this forced rock strata upwards to form the mountains along Tibet's southern rim, which are still today the watershed between the Ganges and ‘Teangpo/Brahmaputra river systems.' Between 16 and 10 million years ago, further movements produced to the south the main Himalayan range and, to their south, the middle hills — a confusion of interrupted ridges and spurs, which in Nepal still form the cultural and political heart of the country. At around the same time the Tibetan mountains rose further and then, between 800,000 and 500,000 years ago, the main Himalayan peaks were again uplifted to tower far above them. Subsequent movements produced the Mahabharat hills along the southern edge of the middle hills and the Siwalik (or Chure) range slightly further south along the edge of the Gangetic plain. This shifting of the earth’s crust continues today and different sections of the Himalayas are still rising at rates of between 5 millimetres and 1 centimetre per year. The rise of the Mahabharats and the Siwaliks temporarily dammed some of the rivers flowing south towards the Ganges, forming lakes in the valleys between the two ranges and also in the Kathmandu Valley. The Kath- mandu lake may have dried up only 100,000 years ago, by which time its shores were almost certainly inhabited. The mythical account of the drain- ing of the Valley by Manjushri (Buddhist version) or Pradyumna (Hindu version), like the similar myths encountered all along the Himalayas, could just conceivably represent an oral tradition dating back more than 3000 generations. It is, though, more likely that the myth-makers simply drew their conclusion from the lie of the land. By way of comparison, there is a Chinese folk story about a land link between Taiwan and the mainland, which were in fact joined until around 8000 Bc, but no folk memory of, 6aa You have either reached a page that is unavailable for viewing or reached your viewing limit for this book.aa You have either reached a page that is unavailable for viewing or reached your viewing limit for this book.aa You have either reached a page that is unavailable for viewing or reached your viewing limit for this book.10 A History of Nepal Table 1.1 (cont.) Untouchable: Chamars (leather-workers) 1.1% Dushadhs (basket-makers) 0.5% Khatawes (labourers) 0.4% Musahars (labourers) 0.8% (b) Ethnic groups (9.0 %): Inner Tarai: Kumals 0.4% Majhis 0.3% Danuwars 0.3% i 0.1% Tarai proper: Tharus 6.5% Dhanukas 0.7% Rajbamshis 0.4% Gangais 01% Dhimals 0.1% (©) Muslims (3.3%) (d) Marwaris (0.2%) (©) Sikhs (0.1%) Notes and sources: Based on data in the 1991 census (Nepal, Central Bureau of Statistics 1993: M, part vit, tab, 25) and analyses by Harka Gurung (Gurung 1994: tab. 1; Salter and Gurung 1996: tab. 1) and Mark Gaborieau (1978). The largest and/or most important groups are shown in bold. The table excludes the 1.0 per cent of the population who were native to the hills but not placed in any specific category in the census. The subtotal of 32.0 per cent for Madheshis (section 4) includes 3.6 per cent of the population who were recorded as Tarai natives but were similarty left unclassified. There are other small discrepancies in subsotal because of roundings and because groups constituting less than o.1 per cent of the population have been omitted. * Harka Gurung treats the Newars as a single group. Figures for the main subdivisions are taken from Gaboricau 1978: 198-206. © Shown in parallel columns because there are separate blocks of Hindu (1.) and Buddhist (c) upper castes, neither of which recognises the other's superior status. See also p. 31. around 1000 Bc and moved through the hills to reach the Karnali basin early in the first millennium ap, displacing or assimilating the existing population. In the centuries after AD 1000, they were joined by a small number of Rajputs, ruling clans from Rajasthan in western India, who fled into the hills to escape the Muslim invaders. The Rajputs were the descendants of the Gurjaras, who had risen to power in India just before the arrival of the Muslims and may have in fact originally come from the hill country. By late medieval times, the ruling families in the hills of central and western Nepal, known as Thakuris, were claiming descent from these Rajput refugees, usually from the dynasty controlling Mewar, whose fortress at Chittaur fell to Muslim besiegers in 1303 and again in 1568.aa You have either reached a page that is unavailable for viewing or reached your viewing limit for this book.aa You have either reached a page that is unavailable for viewing or reached your viewing limit for this book.aa You have either reached a page that is unavailable for viewing or reached your viewing limit for this book.14 A History of Nepal applied by Nepali-speakers to Kiranti groups that could not fit into a more specific category. In the mid-western hills, origin myths of the northern (or Kham) Magars, the ethnic group who formed much of the support base for Nepal's Maoists, tell of a merger between one clan originating locally and others from ‘Mongolia’. Multiple origin is even more obvious for the Magars as a whole, The Kham Magar language itself is very different from that of most southern Magars, while other Magar groups speak dialects very close to Gurung. The term ‘Magar’ was perhaps once simply a prestigious title that was adopted by numerous otherwise unconnected groups. Although the Newars of the Kathmandu Valley speak a Tibeto-Burman language, they are usually treated separately from the various hill groups because of their long tradition of urbanisation and because, like the Par- batiyas, they have a caste system. Linguists argue about whether their lan- guage is more closely related to Kiranti or to Gurung-Tamang-Thakali and, while most scholars see Newar society as a continuation of that of the Kiratas who once dominated the Valley, the Newars, too, are an amalgamation of different peoples. The largest Newar caste, the Maharjan agriculturalists, nowadays regard themselves as indigenous, but many other castes have tra- ditions of migration, some of which will be genuine. The word ‘Newar’ itself is related to the Newar “Nepa’ and the Sanskrit “Nepala’, which origi- nally designated just the Kathmandu Valley.* The Newars were thus simply the ‘people of the Valley’, wherever they had originally come from. The final major population category of the country is the Madheshis — the people of the plains. The term is reserved for those whose ancestors have long lived in the Tarai and who share language and culture with those living south of the Indian border, thus excluding the hill Nepalese who have settled in large numbers in the Tarai in recent decades. Although the Madheshis are often regarded by the hillmen as a single group, the Tarai has traditionally been home to caste Hindus, to a substantial Muslim minority (especially in the western districts) and to various ethnic groups (‘tribes’). The largest of the latter, the Tharus, are of particularly diverse origin and probably had no sense of collective identity until very recently. They were regarded as a single group by outsiders because of their association with the Tarai jungles and particularly because of their immunity to the au, a virulent form of malaria prevalent there until the 1950s and often preventing year-round settlement by other groups. The Indo-Aryan dialects spoken by the Madheshis were brought into North India from the north-west. The main wave of migration down the Ganges Valley commenced probably towards the end of the second millennium Bc, and one of the principal routes lay along the base of theaa You have either reached a page that is unavailable for viewing or reached your viewing limit for this book.aa You have either reached a page that is unavailable for viewing or reached your viewing limit for this book.aa You have either reached a page that is unavailable for viewing or reached your viewing limit for this book.18 A History of Nepal known in India even in Vedic times (c. 1500-800 Bc). In the hills, low population levels meant that multiple-cropping was not necessary and it did not become general there until the late twentieth century. The more intensive method was, however, probably adopted early on in the Kath- mandu Valley, where there was a greater density of settlement, although population growth was restrained by natural calamities. The Newar Maharjans, who were the principal cultivators of the Kath- mandu Valley, did not generally adopt the plough but continued to rely chiefly on their traditional hoe-like ku. This was generally more effective than the Indian scratch plough for breaking up heavy clay soil before plant- ing, and it is mainly for this reason that the plough was not used in most parts of the Valley. However, Maharjans themselves now generally claim that they avoid ploughing because it is sinful to use the bullock in this way, and in places such as the Banepa Valley where it would be advantageous to use the plough, they refrain from doing so. STATE FORMATION IN THE ANCIENT AND MEDIEVAL PERIODS The remoter parts of the subcontinent, including much of present-day Nepal, remained organised on a lineage basis, either completely outside or only loosely connected to a state, throughout the ancient and medieval periods. However, in the middle of the first millennium sc, the Ganges Valley, and in particular the region of Magadha (Bihar), saw the emergence of kingdoms whose rulers did not claim kinship with their subjects and who extracted taxation on a regular basis. After a long struggle, the Magadhan monarchs succeeded in subduing tribal confederacies in the Nepalese Tarai, among which the Licchavis and the Shakyas are the best known. It was against this background that Siddhartha Gautama Buddha (born c. 400 BC), a Shakya, established the religion which bears his name. By early in the first millennium ap, a state on the new North Indian model had emerged in Nepal, controlling the Valley and probably also the hills between the Trisuli in the west and the Sun Kosi in the east. The sulers called themselves Licchavi but it is uncertain whether their claim to descent from the Licchavis of the plains is genuine. Even assuming that it is, we do not know whether the ruling family was accompanied in their migration from the plains by any substantial number of followers. There is no doubt, however, of the cultural links with the Vaisali region: there are similarities between pottery found at Dumakhal in the Valley and at Basarh, the ancient Vaisali. In addition, ancient place names suggest a linkaa You have either reached a page that is unavailable for viewing or reached your viewing limit for this book.aa You have either reached a page that is unavailable for viewing or reached your viewing limit for this book.aa You have either reached a page that is unavailable for viewing or reached your viewing limit for this book.22 A History of Nepal when the raiders acted in collusion with a faction within the Valley. The pattern foreshadowed what was to happen during Prithvi Narayan’s siege of the Valley in the eighteenth century, and, to a lesser extent, during the Maoist ‘People’s War’ in the twentieth. Although the Doyas seemed at this point to have been Bhonta’s allies, a few years later Rudra Malla, head of the Tripura family and de facto tuler of the Valley, arranged the marriage of his sister, Devaladevi, to the Doya ruler, Harisimha. In 1336, threatened by the forces of the Delhi Sultanate, Harisimha fled into the hills where he died before reaching the Valley. Devaladevi assumed leadership of Tripura and married her granddaughter to Jayasthiti Malla, probably a Maithil nobleman. Jayasthiti Malla’s acknowledgement as ruler of the Valley in 1382 restored strong cen- tral control, but, following the death of his grandson Yaksha in 1482, an arrangement for his sons and nephews to rule collectively broke down and Kathmandu, Patan and Bhaktapur eventually emerged as independent city- states. Within the Valley states, politics in the later medieval period was as intrigue-ridden as before and frequently entangled with inter-state relations given the proximity of the three cities to each other and the family ties between rulers. Power was frequently in the hands of queen regents or ministers. The most famous of the latter was Lakshminarayan Joshi of Kathmandu, who at the climax of his career came close to dominating the whole Valley. According to his enemies (whose version of events is preserved in the surviving sources), Joshi poisoned King Parthivendra (ruled 1680-7), seduced his queen and arranged at least two other murders before his own assassination in 1690. Although the wealth and sophistication of the Valley was unrivalled in the hills, it was nevertheless part of a wider network of states. The Khasas, whose raids into the Valley have already been noted, had established an empire which at its greatest extent covered some 142,000 square kilometres, compared to the 200,000 that would be included in the later Gorkhali empire. Centred in the Karnali basin, it also included south-eastern Tibet and parts of Kumaon. Because Khasa rulers adopted the Malla title in imitation of its use in the Valley, their state is sometimes referred to as the Malla empire, although they were not related to the Newar Malla kings. The Khasa state’s economy rested on the development of wet-rice cultivation in the main river valleys. It has been argued that this was possible on a large scale only because the Khasa rulers were strong enough to conscript labour for the construction of irrigation facilities. The state’s role here wasaa You have either reached a page that is unavailable for viewing or reached your viewing limit for this book.aa You have either reached a page that is unavailable for viewing or reached your viewing limit for this book.aa You have either reached a page that is unavailable for viewing or reached your viewing limit for this book.26 A History of Nepal THE CONTROL OF RESOURCES: LAND, TRADE AND MANPOWER Eyen at the hunter-gatherer stage, there must have been competition for resources both in the hills and in the Tarai. In a pre-agricultural society, one square kilometre was needed to support one person, so those who had established themselves in an area did not welcome the arrival of others, who would decrease their available land. As first shifting cultivation and then sedentary agriculture were introduced, land was still seen as belonging to particular peoples or clans, but individuals acquired some claim over plots they had cleared though they were unable to sell it to people outside their group. Lineage heads or chieftains had some general control over a group's territory and, in the case of the Kiratas who preceded the Licchavis in the Kathmandu Valley, this developed into something approaching a state structure. This is shown by apparent references in the Licchavi inscriptions to a Kirata taxation system replaced by the new rulers. However, over the hills as a whole, the power of chieftains or headmen was probably much less than in recent centuries when they were recognised by the state as holding land on their community's behalf. Askingdoms were established, the older system was gradually superseded by the concept of the king as ultimate owner of the land, entitled to claim a share of the crop from the cultivator. The king's share varied in size but, as in South Asia as a whole from ancient times, in the medieval centuries in the Kathmandu Valley it was probably around 50 per cent. The king’s entitlement from a given plot could be assigned temporarily in lieu of salary to the holder of a particular post, or permanently for the maintenance of a religious institution or for the support of those with special religious status: Brahmans, Buddhist monks or other ascetics, At least in the Kathmandu Valley in the late medieval period, the king's claim could also be transferred to ordinary individuals in return for cash payment. Although residual state tights probably made transfers less than absolute, there are records of sales and mortgages in the Valley dating back to the tenth century. These show that transfers of land were normally from the lower castes to higher ones and also that religious institutions frequently acted as money-lenders. Large-scale land assignments, which often carried with them some rights of administration over the local cultivators, sometimes weakened central authority; such transfers may have been one of the causes of the disintegra- tion of the Khasa empire in the western hills. However, where government was tenuous, grants may actually have strengthened the state by extending the cultivated and regulated area. Land grants to Buddhist monasteries or Jain ascetics in ancient India were often made for this reason. In Nepalaa You have either reached a page that is unavailable for viewing or reached your viewing limit for this book.aa You have either reached a page that is unavailable for viewing or reached your viewing limit for this book.aa You have either reached a page that is unavailable for viewing or reached your viewing limit for this book.30 A History of Nepal During the medieval centuries, Newar Buddhism also saw major changes in its organisation. Celibacy by Buddhist monks was gradually abandoned, although ‘monasteries’ survived as institutions, providing homes to mem- bers of the Vajracharya and Shakya castes, descendants of the monks who made the transition to householders in the medieval period. The change, largely complete by the middle of the thirteenth century, was perhaps con- nected primarily with the adoption of the Vajryana (Diamond Way) school of Buddhism, which involved the use of sex (even if only ata symbolic level) at its highest ritual level. Non-celibate religious practitioners had become increasingly important throughout the Vajryana area (mainly North India, the Himalayas and Tibet) but it was only in the Kathmandu Valley that celibacy disappeared completely. Whatever the causes underlying it, this change, together with the adoption of new canonical texts in the fifteenth century, established Newar Buddhism as a unique form of the religion. Vajracharyas and Shakyas served as priests for the Buddhist laity and con- tinued to regard themselves as monks, holding ordination ceremonies for each succeeding generation. In the western hills, the Khasa empire had been primarily Buddhist in orientation, but there was also state patronage of Hinduism. The baisi and chaubisi states were, in contrast, strongly Hindu, whatever the relative con- tribution of immigration from the south or acculturation. Hindu settlers, particularly Brahmans, might help an adventurer claiming Rajput status to establish military control and also provide him with religious legitimation. A similar function was probably played by ascetics of the Kanphata Yogi sect, who are associated with the early history of many of the hill kingships. Particularly in the north, however, and among groups least integrated into the new state structures, Buddhism remained an important element of the religious mix, with Tibetan lamaism a strong influence, while in the Khasa heartland the egalitarian cult of the god Masta remained as a counter-weight to Brahmanism. In all the Hindu kingdoms, caste played a vital role. In the Kathmandu Valley the nineteenth-century vamshavalis generally credit King Jayasthiti Malla with organising Newar society into castes in the fourteenth cen- tury. There is no contemporary evidence for this, however, and the story may have originated simply because sthiti in Nepali can mean ‘system’ or ‘arrangements’. The composers of the vamshavali probably chose to high- light the king’s role simply to make Newar institutions seem worthy of respect in the eyes of the Gorkhali conquerors. Nevertheless, the Newar caste system did assume its present shape dur- ing the medieval period, and it was the existence of the ‘ex-monks’ thataa You have either reached a page that is unavailable for viewing or reached your viewing limit for this book.aa You have either reached a page that is unavailable for viewing or reached your viewing limit for this book.aa You have either reached a page that is unavailable for viewing or reached your viewing limit for this book.34 A History of Nepal the gods, staged within the royal palace but probably with large sections of the population admitted as spectators, In an inscription on a 1673 statue of Vishnu within the Hanuman Dhoka palace, the king himself explains how he had been possessed by the god after impersonating him in ritual performance and been told to construct the statue as a form of exorcism. Pratap Malla was also the builder of Rani Pokhari (‘Queen’s Pond’) and set the trend for Valley rulers to erect statues of themselves on a pillar facing a temple of Taleju, the Mallas’ patron goddess. Both inside and outside the Valley, kings also competed as exemplars of traditional Hindu kingship, as men of letters who wrote some of the plays they themselves performed in and also as consumers of the new trends in luxury set by the Mughal rulers to the south. Although the Mughals were non-Hindus, they were the greatest power in South Asia and so association with them brought prestige. The stories of Mahendra Malla of Kathmandu obtaining permission to mint coins from the emperor in Delhi and of Rama Shah of Gorkha similarly receiving a new formal title must be understood in this sense, whether or not they are strictly historical. To an observer in the early eighteenth century, it must have seemed that the performance of the Himalayan state could continue much as it had done before, with only minor fluctuations in the cast of mini-states which occupied the hills. The accession of a new king in Gorkha in 1743 was, however, to lead to fundamental change.